Dr. John Repine's Laboratory

Our research is focused on finding better ways to diagnose, treat and prevent inflammation, antioxidant deficiency and oxidative stress related diseases and aging.These investigations target a number of important interrelated disease areas including the following:

The Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS or Acute Lung Injury).ARDS is a highly-fatal disease (approximately 40% death rate) that occurs following infection, trauma, pancreatitis, multiple transfusions and multiple other common predisposing insults.ARDS kills more Americans (estimated at 80,000) each year than breast cancer and AIDS combined. ARDS takes the lives of many soldiers. We are presently pursuing a number of approaches (some patent protected) for predicting ARDS development in susceptible individuals and developing therapies for treating and preventing this deadly condition.

The Metabolic Syndrome. This is a common condition that occurs in aging individuals who develop abdominal obesity, hypertension, abnormal blood lipid levels, premature cardiovascular disease and/or increased blood glucose levels that resemble changes seen in diabetes.We are testing an animal model that lives longer and appears to resist metabolic syndrome development.This work will create new insights regarding the causes and treatment of this disease and related disorders that may eventually impact as many as 20% of the world’s population.

Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD).AMD is the leading cause of blindness in the elderly.It is a very common disorder that may afflict as many as 8% of individuals who are 70 years of age or older. AMD starts as a dry form that then unpredictably changes to a more severe wet form. There is no known effective treatment for dry ARDS.We are developing a new approach that has the potential of reducing dry AMD and hopefully preventing it from evolving into wet AMD.

Aging. We are testing a unique animal model that lives longer, can exercise more and can breathe pure oxygen indefinitely without succumbing. The model holds potential for understanding and reducing the effects of aging and age-related disorders.